Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Don’t Know
- Unions, Organized Labor?
- Don’t Know
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Probable
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | 2689 | 6 | ||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | 4075 | 3 | ||||||
| 1920 | 4507 | 0 | ||||||
| 1930 | 4861 | 0 | ||||||
| 1940 | 5101 | 1 | ||||||
| 1950 | 5633 | 2 | ||||||
| 1960 | 5604 | 0 | ||||||
| 1970 | 5176 | 0 | ||||||
| 1980 | 5004 | 2 | ||||||
| 1990 | 4751 | 8 | ||||||
| 2000 | 5251 | 8 | 29 | 9 | 81 | |||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Threat of Violence
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
An Indiana resident writes:
%u201CI was born in Elwood, Indiana in 1939. We have always lived in Kokomo but had family in Elwood. When I was young, I spent a lot of time, especially during the summers at Elwood. Of course the family was always driving over to Elwood (just 30 miles from Kokomo) to visit, as well as my train trips during the summer to spend a week or two at a time with them.
If you start at Frankfort on Indiana State Road 28 and go east, you hit Tipton, Elwood and Alexandria. All of these town were on State Road 28 and all of them had the “Sundown” signs at the city limits. I have seen these signs personally many times when I was growing up in the 1940’s and possibly even the very early 50’s. Of course when I was young, I didn’t know what these signs were saying, but my parents explained it to me. I guess that it was a different time period when I was growing up as I was not taught to use terms like Niggers etc. Yes I heard these terms as I got older, but my folks used the word “Colored People” and it worked fine for me. I grew up in Kokomo and graduated in 1956 from Kokomo High School. We had a fair black population and went to High School with colored kids. Never many problems in school with the mix during my time.%u201D
Since Tipton County, with Tipton as the county seat, had 58 blacks in 1880, just 19 in 1890, and still less later, there may have been some expulsion.